


Cast Away Your True Love's Kiss

by YellowMagicalGirl



Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons)
Genre: And I'm sure Draal made a ton of similar threats, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Any violence that actually occurs isn't as bad as the canon, Bastardizing Shakespeare, Body Horror, Break Up, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Depression, Don’t copy to another site, F/M, Gen, Nosebleed, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Not Really Character Death, Post-Break Up, References to Shakespeare, Self-Hatred, Threats of Violence, True Love's Kiss, Tumblr Prompt, Unreliable Narrator, canon-typical threats of violence, coughing up blood, crying blood, implied/referenced suicidal ideation, petrification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-05-31 12:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YellowMagicalGirl/pseuds/YellowMagicalGirl
Summary: "Tell you what. Since we both had to suffer under that wizard, I’ll tell you two forms of a cure. The first is a fairy’s breath, and the second is true love’s kiss. Now, I wonder which of those will be harder for you to find?"





	Cast Away Your True Love's Kiss

**Author's Note:**

  * For [im_the_king_of_the_ocean](https://archiveofourown.org/users/im_the_king_of_the_ocean/gifts).



> This was originally a Sleeping Beauty AU that I had decided not to write. Then Whirl gave me a prompt, and it exploded into this fanfic.

“Are you okay?” shouldn’t have been the words that started the end. When they left Jim’s mouth, they didn’t _sound_ like they were words intended to start the end of things.

No, she wasn’t okay. Okay was only five feet away from perfect and she was as far from perfect, as far from okay even, as far she was from Arcadia.

“I’m _fine,_ ” Claire said instead. Fine was a nice lie, a lie that she had perfected. It was one of the few things still perfect about her. And besides, if she wasn’t fine now it was a state she could get to if she worked hard enough. She had to be fine, and she had to handle it on her own.

“No, you’re not.” Of _course,_ Jim could tell when something was off. “Are you sleeping okay? The ground probably isn’t good for your back.” Then again, he was also _entirely_ off from the source of her problems.

Was she sleeping okay? Ha. She wasn’t levitating with blackened eyes or trying to take down wards when she was supposed to be sleeping, was she?

“I’m fine, Jim. Really.”

He ignored her. “Are you eating enough? I” Was he? “I can cook more for you. Would that help?”

No, she wouldn’t try to torture Jim. He loved cooking and he couldn’t eat his own food.

“Seriously, Jim, I’m fine.” She _wouldn’t_ be fine if he kept trying to fix her. He couldn’t fix her.

“I wish you wouldn’t lie to me. You did that when you were sick, and, well…” Jim trailed off, possibly sensing her fury a moment before it was unleashed.

“This is _nothing_ like that,” she seethed. Angry magic rose within her; she pushed it down. Jim shouldn’t bring _it_ up like that, but she would not be a monster. And that was just another part of her problem.

“I’m really worried about you, and you keep brushing all of us off!”

“There’s nothing to worry about!” _Because there’s nothing you can fix so drop it._

“Please, Claire,” Jim said, dropping his voice into a soft tone. “All of us – Blinky, Me, Nomura, Notenrique, Toby – we’re all worried about you. You’re jumpy, and it feels like each night you’re dragging behind more and more.”

And there it was. There was his chance.

Claire grabbed her backpack and began to walk out of the cave.

“Where are you going?” Jim asked.

“Home. Arcadia,” Claire said. She didn’t look at him. If she looked back at him she would crumple to the floor.

“How are you going to get back there? We’re hundreds of miles away.” Jim asked as Claire removed the crystal from the center of her chest. Her armor disappeared.

“Greyhound.” Short, simple, words kept her from crying. She almost dropped the crystal that triggered her armor but chose to put it in her pocket instead.

“I, okay,” Jim said. “Are you sure? I can try to make things better, we can still fix things.”

She wanted him to fight for her, for them. She wanted him to push her away.

“There’s nothing you can fix, Jim.” She put as much poison into the words as she could. That’s all that was left of her, wasn’t it? “I hope you can find someone better than me.”

Jim called out for her as she began to walk across the scorching sand. Claire didn’t cry because it was a mile-long walk to the nearest bus station and she didn’t really want to get dehydrated.

Jim stopped calling her name, and she realized that someone else was also calling out her name.

“Come on, Claire, wait up! Little legs!”

For the first time since leaving, Claire turned around. NotEnrique had retained his changeling ability to walk in the sun.

“NotEnrique, what are you doing here?” She walked towards him, slowly and steadily so she wouldn’t try and run back to Jim once she got to her brother.

“Didn’t think you could just leave me behind, did’ya?”

“But the Heartstone–”

“Most changelings don’t get a Heartstone. Heck, old Bossman stayed with the Trollhunter’s mother instead of traveling to New Jersey with us. No, I’m staying with you, kid. You can’t push me away that easy.”

Claire scooped him up into her arms and began walking to the bus stop again. “You’re getting shoved in my backpack and you’re not allowed to mess with anything once we get closer to civilization.”

* * *

After days on a bus, Claire was finally back in Arcadia. Did she regret it?

It was only another item on the list.

She knelt and let NotEnrique out of her backpack. He looked around.

“Really, sis? You couldn’t have waited one more stop to get us closer to yer house?”

“You’re the one who complained about being cooped up.”

It was sunny out, so there weren’t many trolls around.

“You gonna call him to tell him you got home okay?” NotEnrique asked. She didn’t have to ask to know he was talking about Jim. He’d tried to give her relationship advice, which oscillated between “maybe you should’ve left me behind, so I could’ve made his hands symmetrical and gotten rid of the extra teeth” and trying to get her to talk about her feelings and how there was obviously something wrong other than the fact that Jim had pushed a little too much in the wrong direction.

Claire pushed her shoulders and her feelings down and back. “Later.”

“What about your parents or Tubby for a ride with a car or a magic warhammer?”

“We’re _walking,_ ” Claire said a bit more forcefully. Besides, she didn’t want to have to talk to them right now. Her mom would try to act like she had been right all along, that living a normal life would do Claire better than a change of scenery. Her dad would manage to come up with more creative threats for her ex-boyfriend than NotEnrique had. Jim had probably cried to Toby about her walking out on him, so things would be at least as awkward as they had been when she had first joined the team.

As Claire crossed the bridge that went over the entrance to Trollmarket, she glanced at the canal. Once destroyed by the vortex that created the Eternal Night, building teams had managed to patch the hole in a surprisingly fast amount of time.

That patch allowed Claire and NotEnrique not to fall into an incredibly deep chasm whose fall they wouldn’t survive. They would have fallen down and down, and without the Shadow Staff then at least Claire would splatter among the dead Heartstone like a messier version of Vendel’s death.

Instead, they rolled, and the burst of energy caused by Claire summoning her armor took away from the freefall.

“Pity, what they’ve done to my handiwork.” Claire had never wanted to hear that voice again.

Morgana’s spirit floated in front of Claire just like it had so many times in the past.

“I sealed you away,” Claire said. She moved to grip her Shadow Staff and remembered that it had been destroyed.

“Yes, well, so did Merlin, and you still were my servant for a little while.” Morgana was being more courteous since the last time they had seen each other. She was acting like she had in the bathroom, after she had stopped pretending to be concerned that she had absolutely terrified Claire by taking on the form of her reflection.

“Get away from her!” NotEnrique ran towards Morgana. Claire wasn’t sure if he knew that he would probably pass through the witch, but neither of them got to find out. Morgana flicked her wrist, and NotEnrique went flying across the canal.

“They never learn,” Morgana sighed.

“Some of us do,” Claire said, magic bursting from her hands.

“Then what I’ll do to you might be a kindness.” Claire was baking in her armor and she still shivered at the word “kindness” coming out of Morgana’s mouth. “After all, you won’t have to live as Merlin’s newest apprentice.”

Claire brought up her hands to form semi-crystalline shields.

Morgana smirked. “A dangerous spell to use, when the combination of your raw power and desire to die are matched by your inexperience.”

Claire didn’t actually want to die, though. Just disappear for a while. No, the witch was just taunting her. She was referring to the fact that sometimes Claire did stupid things, like tackle people into the Shadow Realm or make a giant portal that she had been warned not to make.

It wasn’t that Claire didn’t suspect something was going terribly wrong when her veins began to crack and turn black again. It was just that it was a painful side effect of magic.

It was odd, though. This spell wasn’t normally so painful to cast.

“I’ve been wondering when you would return to this place,” Morgana said. “It took longer than I expected, but don’t worry. I’ve had other things to do while I waited.”

Claire wrinkled her nose. Then something warm began to drip out of it, and she pressed her lips together. This was not the time for her to develop allergies.

Morgana’s smile grew wider. “Well, now you’re back in your beloved Arcadia Oaks. You’re going to destroy it for me.”

“I won’t let you possess me again!” Claire shouted. Blood dripped from her nose into her mouth. “I’d rather–”

Well, maybe the witch had a little bit of a point.

“Oh, don’t worry, you burned that bridge. Such an ungracious host,” she scoffed. Claire felt like she was salivating blood.

“No,” Morgana continued. “You’re going to carry a plague to the rest of Arcadia Oaks, and after that, how about the world? It’ll be like in that play you like, oh, what was the line?” She tapped a translucent jade finger against her chin as if she was thinking. “Oh, right. You’ll be like a plague upon both the worlds you tried to protect.”

Had she been younger, Claire would have been frustrated by the way her favorite play was being used against her. Instead, she was more focused on the fact that she was starting to cough up blackened blood.

She wouldn’t be patient zero. She needed to do something to protect Arcadia.

She began to cry, and her vision began to go black. She didn’t faint, though, she just looked around wildly as she realized that blackened blood had blinded her.

“Oh, you poor thing,” the Mother of Monsters drawled. Blood disseminated down Claire’s throat as a ghostly hand managed to cup her cheek. It then grabbed her chin and presumably forced her to face Morgana. “Tell you what. Since we both had to suffer under that wizard, I’ll tell you two forms of a cure.”

Claire didn’t need to see Morgana to know that her grin must have been splitting her face open by now.

“The first is a fairy’s breath, and the second is true love’s kiss. Now, I wonder which of those will be harder for you to find?”

How did Morgana know about her breakup with Jim? She was probably referring to the fact that she had knocked him out in battle.

Claire hoped she blasted a hole in Morgana’s incorporeal form with the blast of presumably purple light that came out of her hand.

Claire felt herself get lifted into the air, and then get dropped for her insolence. She tried to form shields to slow her fall. She had to find a way to keep herself from infecting Arcadia and killing the rest of the world like Morgana had wanted, because the fairies had lost the war to the pixies and there would be no true love’s kiss.

The last thing Claire felt was her lungs filling up and her magic pulsing out of her like a shockwave.

* * *

_“Hey, Tobes! I guess I caught you at a bad time, hope you’re keeping it crispy! Bye!”_

_“Hi, Mom. I’m guessing you’re at the clinic, so I’ll call you back later.”_

_“Toby, are you mad at me?”_

_“Hey, AAARRRGGHH!!! Blinky’s a little worried about you, and don’t tell him I said this, but I think me might be worried about Dictatious, too.”_

_“Mom? I didn’t want to leave you, you know that, right? You know that I wasn’t trying to be like Dad – bad-dad, not Blinky – when I left; are you mad at me? I love you. Bye.”_

_“Hi, Mr. Strickler. Can you please tell Mom I’m sorry for whatever I did?”_

_“NotEnrique? Hi, it’s Jim. Weird stuff is going on, and I was wondering if you and Claire are okay. Sorry for putting you in an awkward position.”_

_“Hi, Claire. I know you’re mad at me, but_ please. _I need your help. No one from back home in Arcadia is answering my calls or texts, and I’m getting worried. I can’t find anything on the internet, and you should be back in Arcadia by now. Can you just talk to them? You don’t even have to talk to me if you don’t want to, though an indicator that you made it back safe would be nice. I just want to know what’s going on.”_

 _“This is Jim. I don’t know_ why _you won’t talk to me, but this is going to be my last call until you call me back. I can’t do this anymore.”_

_“I know I said that last time was my last call until you called me back, but I’m coming back to Arcadia. Do as you will. I’ll be ready.”_

* * *

The gyre broke down before it got to the station. It was alright, Jim supposed. He had left Arcadia six months ago, and six months ago he would have been elated to be back home.

He didn’t really want to go back to Arcadia, now, but there was a baby Heartstone to bring back to the old one. They were here to figure out what cuttings would be needed to be able to safely place the new Heartstone into the old one. It would be easier than trying to establish a Trollmarket in New Jersey.

“Good thing we left at sunset,” Blinky said, “because it looks like we’ll have to walk.”

“I’ll see if I can find directions,” Jim said half-heartedly. “There’s nothing.”

It was like his hometown had disappeared off the map.

“We’ll just take the old routes.”

After a couple minutes of walking, Jim had to blink a couple times. “Hey, Blink? Do you feel like something’s trying to turn us away? Like, we shouldn’t keep going, like there’s something bad ahead?”

“Oh, Jim, I know this is hard for you,” Blinky said. “I don’t know why they stopped speaking to us, but we have a duty to the other trolls.”

“I know, but it’s not like that. It’s like…”

One moment, they were walking through the woods. The next, they were on the outskirts of Arcadia. A barrier of violet and gold light stood behind them. On the ground was a squirrel mid-run. Birds perched in the trees.

All of them looked like they had been hit by Creeper’s Sun.

“Great Gronka Morka, who would’ve done this?” Blinky asked.

Jim summoned his shield and gestured for Blinky to get behind him. “And why? Small animals wouldn’t pose a threat, and it’s not like anyone would rather eat them petrified.” He looked behind himself, to check to see if he was saying was true.

“Not like this, it’s unnatural,” Blinky said, ignoring the fact that so was whipped cream with preservatives. “Also, that barrier makes me uneasy.”

“After we crossed it, I stopped feeling like we were supposed to turn away.” Jim frowned. “Do you think that’s why we couldn’t find any information on Arcadia?”

“Perhaps, son.” Blinky pulled out his phone. “All the information is almost six months old.”

Jim summoned his dagger and cracked open the squirrel. Like a geode, it was filled with amethyst, though it had veins of iron pyrite. Between the amethyst and k-spar-esque covering, the squirrel was comprised of obsidian.

“Let’s go to Trollmarket; I can check my library. Oh, I do wish my brother didn’t complete the act of burning it.”

The road to Trollmarket’s entrance was littered with petrified bodies. To call Arcadia Oaks a ghost town wouldn’t have encapsulated the extent of the horror Jim felt. All these people were going about their everyday lives; none of them looked like they knew what would happen to them.

It was Blinky who saw it first.

Sprouted from the canal was a single amethyst. It was three meters high, and vaguely conical. As Blinky and Jim walked towards it, they found that a ring of iron pyrite kept it fused to the jagged circle of obsidian that surrounded it.

For all its supernatural beauty, it was the figure inside the amethyst that gave them the most pause. Claire was frozen in freefall, with black veins peeking out from her clawed armor. Despite the stains that obscured them, the knowledge that those same veins in her face would be blackened filled Jim with dread. Despite her eyes being unseeing voids of black, she looked so _scared._ Black spheroids streamed upwards from her eyes, nose, and mouth; she was eternally crying and drowning in amethyst.

“No,” Jim said. “She didn’t deserve this.” He turned to Blinky. “I’m going to cut down her body.”

Carving her out was emotionally arduous but faster than Jim would’ve expected. Feeling NotEnrique’s petrified gaze upon him didn’t make it any easier. One of his daggers cut a little too close to her hand, and he winced.

Could he have saved her? She had been dyspeptic when he had last seen her alive and “fine”, but maybe if he had tried harder to make her happy, or at least comfortable, maybe she wouldn’t have left and wouldn’t be like this.

Her hand began to glow like an eggplant dwärkstone.

“Get down!” Jim called, summoning his shield to defend himself from the chunks of amethyst that came flying off Claire’s body.

When the blast cleared, Claire’s chest rapidly rose and fell as gurgling noises came from her throat. Blinky ran to the pair of teenagers, hugged Claire from behind, and squeezed.

It was hard to tell whether she vomited black blood, coughed it up from her lungs, or some abhorrent combination of the two.

“It’s alright, Faire Claire,” Blinky said. “You’re safe now.”

* * *

The three of them sat in Blinky’s library, which hadn’t been trashed by Gumm-Gumms.

Claire didn’t look Blinky in the eyes, and she tried not to look at Jim. Her eyelids felt heavy; the bloody tears clung to her eyelashes like cheap expired mascara.

“I hadn’t been back in Arcadia for more than half an hour when she found me.”

“She?” Blinky pressed.

Claire flinched. Jim had only seen her so jumpy twice. Once had been in the woods upon learning that trolls existed; the second time was the hours after her possession. “Morgana.”

“She’s back?” Jim asked. “But you guys sealed her away.”

“Not physically.” Claire coughed into the crook of her arm. “Her spirit showed up and tossed NotEnrique and I around. She wants me to carry a plague.”

“If she wanted you to carry a plague, then why would she have petrified everyone and trapped you in crystal? Or made a barrier around town that makes every human forget that Arcadia exists and keeps them from wanting to enter town?”

Claire gasped, an ugly and wet sound. “I think I did that. I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone, I just wanted to shield myself from her magic.”

And of course, she wanted to disappear.

Blinky stood up. “If she cursed you, then if you’re cured it might cure everyone else, since they were affected by your magic.”

“Morgana decided to tell me a way to cure myself, since, her words, ‘we both had to suffer under that wizard.’ It was a taunt, though, since fairy’s breath would be difficult to find.”

But not as difficult as true love’s kiss, nor as manipulative.

* * *

Claire had tried to stay out of Jim and Blinky’s way. She didn’t deserve them trying to help her. Everyone else in Arcadia did, though.

Claire sniffled again and tilted her head back. The number of nosebleeds she had been getting was frustrating. Stupid curse. Stupid black blood. Stupid Queen of the Seventh Realm or whatever she called herself these days.

Her stomach growled because it was mercifully empty of her own forsaken blood.

“When was the last time you ate?” Blinky asked.

“About five months ago,” Claire admitted. She opened her backpack to find the bag of beef jerky that had served as meals. “I think I have a… no, NotEnrique ate them all. Of course, he did.”

“Hopefully food on the surface hasn’t spoiled… I wonder if they have whipped cream,” Blinky mused. “Unfortunately, the sun should be rising, soon. Jim!”

“Yeah!” came the call from a call from one of Vendel’s old records.

“Can you accompany Claire to the surface to obtain food?”

Claire grimaced. “Blinky, I’ll be fine; I can go on my own.”

She hadn’t expected Blinky to give her such a sad smile. “Normally I’d believe you when you say you’ll be fine.”

Of course, Jim would have told Blinky about her last conversation with him. Would have told him how she had angrily professed to be fine. She had then gotten herself cursed and frozen in time.

“But you’ve lost a lot of blood,” he continued. “I don’t want you fainting.”

* * *

Walking together was awkward. Claire kept her eyes on the ground, so she wouldn’t have to see the people she had turned to stone. If she had stayed with Jim and the trolls, this wouldn’t have happened. She would have made them miserable as they figured her out, but she wouldn’t have been responsible for this. At the very least, she probably could have learned more from Merlin, so she could have protected herself.

Or she could have gotten her hand cut off, but that would be better than what she had done to her town.

“I almost wish we could call Merlin,” Jim said. “There’s a chance he might actually be able to _help,_ for once.”

“Something happen to him?” Claire asked. Merlin hadn’t exactly been entirely helpful upon getting his magic back, though he had occasionally given her magic lessons. They seemed like they happened because he was bored, though, not because he truly took an interest in her magical ability.

They were probably better than what Morgana had gotten, at least.

“He _up and left_ back in October.” Jim was fishing for the apology, or at least the explanation, that she owed him.

Claire began to walk faster. It would be more comfortable for him, she told herself. He had a longer stride than her. It just seemed like she was walking away. Again.

“Do you have any plans for after we find the cure for you?”

Not particularly, beyond hugging Suzy Snooze and bawling in the safety of her own room. Her younger self would be horrified with what she had become.

“Do you?”

“The Heartstone in New Jersey’s pretty small, but Blinky thinks we can use the old Heartstone to amplify it. It’ll be easier than building new infrastructure.”

“So, you’ll be coming back to Arcadia.”

“Eventually, yeah.”

“That’ll be, I’m sure you’ll be happy to see Toby and your mom again.” She’d have to face him more often than she thought she would.

“Yeah, considering that no one _willingly cut all contact,_ it’ll be good to see all, everyone again.”

He blamed her. Of course, he did. Why wouldn’t he blame her? Yeah, Morgana had wanted her to kill everyone, but she was still the one who turned everyone to stone. And besides, she wasn’t a pleasant person to be around. Not anymore.

“The grocery store should be this way.” Claire started to walk faster before doubling over. She couldn’t breathe, and this wasn’t like when she would have an anxiety attack. She began to cough.

A four-fingered hand pounded her back with restrained force. A five-fingered hand held her hair away from her face.

“Thanks,” Claire said hoarsely once she was done coughing.

“Any time.”

“Still answering every call?”

“I kind of have to; there’s no _walking away_ from being the Trollhunter.”

Why didn’t he just stick Eclipse into her? It’d be more efficient than his continuous lack of subtlety at inserting knives into her and then twisting them.

“Do you know if there’s been any heavy rain lately? If not in Arcadia, then the greater LA area.”

“No, why?”

“Just wondering how strong the stone is. NotEnrique could’ve been swept away if we’ve gotten any large rainstorms. And smashed against the walls of the canals. It’s also good no one has gotten other forms of erosion.” She was rambling too much. All the words she hadn’t said because she was _fine_ and then a crystal were threatening to spill out.

“That would have been pretty bad, since once a troll is shattered that’s it for them, or at least it is with Creeper’s Sun.” Jim coughed slightly, and the frowned. That was odd, he hadn’t coughed ever since he had taken Grave Sand.

* * *

The whipped cream was spoiled, as were all the perishables that would have perished in the time since Arcadia Oaks had been petrified. Claire grabbed multiple cans of fruit and other foods she wouldn’t feel absolutely miserable eating cold. That meant passing over a can of refried beans in favor of Spam. Not even the chorizo-flavored canned meat, but the original flavor that had been used since the second world war. Not that the refried beans would taste as good as homemade ones but cooking beans more time.

“We can probably stop at one of our houses to see if the microwaves will work,” Jim said.

“I’d rather not.”

“You _really_ want to eat that cold?”

“Back when you were human, would you rather have eaten a can of cold Spam or have stumbled upon your mom’s petrified body?” She walked over to where the bottled water was kept.

“Cold spam. I’ve already seen Mom petrified once, and that was enough.”

“When?” Claire asked before she could stop herself. She didn’t deserve his vulnerability.

“That was my worst fear when the pixies came.”

“Oh. I’m sorry.” Claire handed the water to Jim and began walking to the register. She began to pull out cash and a pen. On a paper towel she wrote a note, stating what she had taken and how much, making sure to pay for it in full. She didn’t look the dead-eyed cashier in the face.

“Looking back, I think I might have rather faced petrified family members in the Deep,” Jim mused.

“What _did_ you face down there?” Claire asked, voice soft. He hadn’t ever really spoken about it, at least, not to her.

“I’ll tell you if you tell me what’s going on with you,” Jim said.

Claire bristled, adjusting her grip on her heavy backpack. “I already told you, I’m cursed.”

“You weren’t cursed months ago, when you _left_ us.”

Dammit.

“And _months_ ago, I told you to _drop it.”_

“I would have if you had given me _one_ reason not to worry about you! Just _one_ reason, and I would have tried to make things better! Unless,” he said, a betrayed expression overtaking his face. “Is it because I’m a troll?”

No. That wasn’t it at all. She had _meant_ what she had said back on the rooftop six months ago, and she hadn’t changed her mind.

“Not everything is _about_ you, Jim,” she said instead. At least his look of betrayal was replaced by one of more generic anger.

“Right. It’s about you.”

“What?”

“We’re trying to help you, you know, but for the past couple what has been only _days_ for you, you’ve been irritable and stuck-up.”

“Stuck-up? Irritable, sure, I’ll admit to that. But how have I been stuck up?”

“Does ‘I hope you can find someone better than _me’_ ring any bells?”

Blood and acid churned in her stomach. “Jim, no,” she said, suddenly very aware of the way their angered voices echoed against the too-quiet parking lot. “That was supposed to be a low bar. You were supposed to figure out that someone better than me is a low bar. Six feet under Blinky’s library low. By the way, he’s probably wondering where we are.”

Neither of them spoke on the way back to Trollmarket, but Jim kept on giving Claire concerned glances.

* * *

“All the whipped cream spoiled,” Claire said. “Sorry, Blinky.”

Jim watched the two of them interact; his heart filled with what must have been longing. It felt more liquid than usual.

He had been trying to ignore it, but she looked so fragile. At first it had just been the combination of his half-troll strength and the way the veins along her jaw, eyes, and fingers formed black cracks. But now, knowing just how she viewed herself, knowing that he had been right about her not being fine in the worst ways…

Hating his ex-girlfriend had been hard enough in the months that had passed. Trying to convince himself that he didn’t love her anymore was even harder.

Now it was impossible to do either.

* * *

“You want any help?” Jim asked.

He didn’t expect the “sure” that fell out of Claire’s lips with a little bit of blood. She wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist.

“What’cha researching?”

“The war between the fairies and the pixies, and the connections that a certain witch we know has to the fairies.”

“Let me guess: it’s more than her last name?”

“I’m not sure if ‘le Fay’ is actually a last name or more of a title, but yeah. Apparently, she’s the daughter of the queen of Avalon, which is supposedly surrounded by an uncrossable sea of chaos and shadows.”

Jim gasped in horror. “That means–”

“– we’ll have to find a way to get through the Shadow Realm,” Claire finished solemnly. “But she said it was _a_ cure.” Not exactly. “That would mean there’s other possible cures.” Ones other than crossing through the Shadow Realm and the one that would be entirely impossible.

“And if there isn’t, we’re going to have to be careful. Morgana did this to you because she could use it to break out–”

“–and she has a personal grudge against me,” Claire interrupted.

“And she has a personal grudge against you,” Jim said. “But this isn’t going to be like the Darklands. We’re going to get the fairy’s breath, fix you and Arcadia, all without releasing anyone who wants to destroy the world.”

“You can’t fix me,” Claire whispered. Jim looked up from the book into her eyes. The resignation in them made her look more ancient than Vendel had been.

“No, we’re going to find a cure,” Jim said.

The smile that stretched across her face asked why he had drunk all and left no friendly drop to help her after.

“I _know_ you can, Jim. We’re going to find a way to save Arcadia. But you _can’t_ fix me. At this point, I’m not sure if anyone can.”

“That’s why you kept saying you were fine,” Jim said.

Then he turned away from her and the books and started coughing into his hand.

Claire screamed his name and rushed to face him. Jim pulled his hand away from his mouth. It was covered in blackened blood.

“Well, looks like we’re on more of a deadline than we thought,” he said.

Claire took a deep breath, and then another.

“Morgana actually gave me two cures,” she said, and put a hand up when Jim started to protest why she hadn’t mentioned it. “I didn’t tell you about the second one because that one won’t work for me, and I think she knew that. She probably got her reasoning wrong, but it doesn’t matter. It’ll work for you, though. I think.”

“What is it?”

“True love’s kiss,” Claire said, and every word felt like pulling out a serrated knife she had become numb to. “I hope it doesn’t have to be mutual, or if does have to be mutual it doesn’t have to be romantic, because then Blinky or I can just kiss you and you’ll be _okay_.”

“Wait, what?” Jim asked.

“Then again, the last Morgana-related magic we used was the antidote for the Creeper’s Sun, and the true love’s kiss _for that_ had to be romantic, so it was only Toby’s tears that would have worked. Hopefully the magic behind changeling-created-potions works differently than the curse we’re _both_ now under.”

“You still love me?”

Inky tears filled her eyes before Claire could stop them, and she lowered to the ground, so she wouldn’t have to stumble around blindly. She wrapped her arms around herself like she could shield herself from her own emotions with them.

“I didn’t want it to end,” she said between sobs. “I just thought you’d be better off without me...”

“Is it okay if I hold you?” Jim asked, and she nodded, trying to make her arms fall limp at her sides. Jim curled around her, and she was unable to restrain herself from wrapping her arms around his torso.

“I didn’t want you to know,” Claire sobbed, ignoring the way she was ruining his shirt. “I didn’t want you to feel bad when you figured out that you didn’t love me anymore because I wasn’t _worth_ loving, and that’s half of why I _left_ like that and have been trying to push you away when you’ve been trying to help me.” She took a shuddering breath.

“Claire, I never stopped loving you, not really,” Jim said. “I tried to convince myself that I didn’t, and I tried to convince myself that I hated you, but I couldn’t do either of those things.”

“But why? Why me?” Claire lifted her head, hoping she was making a good approximation of looking Jim in the eyes. “I’m not who I used to be.” _I’m a million miles from the girl who tried to be perfect._

“Neither am I.”

“But that’s different, you don’t petrify an entire town and block out everyone’s memories because you just want to disappear.” The words were spilling out of her like the blood that had come out of her mouth when Blinky had performed a Heimlich maneuver on her. “You’re still _you_ inside. I’m an empty shell that’s filled with nothing but self-loathing. And I guess cursed blood, too.”

“Claire, I…” Jim held her a little more tightly. “I can’t fix you because I don’t know how, but you’re so much more than that. And just because you don’t love yourself doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

Claire felt him brush the side of his face right next to hers, silently asking permission. She turned and softly kissed him on the lips.

The taste of blood faded from her mouth, and the scent of it faded from her nose. Her veins relaxed back into her skin.

Jim’s phone rang once, twice, a third time. They ignored it.

“Jimbo, you’re almost as bad as Eli because I somehow just got about a thousand texts and voicemails from you all at the same time!” Toby shouted through Jim’s voicemail. 

**Author's Note:**

> Not shown: everyone inside of Arcadia adjusting to months passing without them, everyone outside of Arcadia who isn't a troll adjusting to their memories having been blocked, the trolls moving back, and Claire finally seeing a therapist. Also, some birds pecking at a squirrel-shaped geode.


End file.
